State, city to rehab homes in Pullman neighborhood

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan awarded $1.5 million to support an affordable historic home revitalization project in Pullman led by the Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan awarded $1.5 million to support an affordable historic home revitalization project in Pullman led by the Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives.

John ByrneTribune reporter

Historic homes in Chicago’s Pullman neighborhood will be rehabbed and financial assistance offered to people to buy them under a $1.9 million plan unveiled Tuesday.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said $1.5 million of the funding will come from the state's portion of a national settlement with banks accused of mortgage fraud.

Of that total, $1.3 million will be spent on renovating and selling 20 vacant homes as part of a “affordable historic home revitalization initiative” in the Far South Side neighborhood, according to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration. Another $200,000 will be used to buy 15 buildings in the area that will be turned into about 40 rental properties.

In addition, the city will kick in $400,000 to help prospective home buyers finance the purchase of the rehabbed homes.

Ald. Anthony Beale, 9th, and the mayor have been pushing to have the Pullman neighborhood designated a national historical park. The neighborhood — once a “company town” where sleeper rail cars bearing George Pullman's name were built starting in the late 1800s — is currently a historic district.